May 18, 2011

Lately I've been spoilt with almost weekly visits to the countryside and I'm becoming addicted to buying fresh produce from the farms or, even better - picking my own fruit and vegetables. On my last trip I was fortunate to visit a beautiful private garden with big citrus trees, a sublime veggie patch and even a pistachio tree! I was given a big bag full of vibrantly yellow Meyer lemons (which are still waiting to be used) and something I had never seen or even heard of before - a poor man's orange.

Turns out this fruit, which is also known as the New Zealand grapefruit is very high in pectin and thus perfect for making jams and marmalades. It looks like a grapefruit and has a similar taste to a grapefruit, but has a high amount of seeds (thus, the pectin). I decided to use the juice of the fruit to make this sweet chutney. I still had a couple of quinces to use so I chopped them up and boiled them with the juice until really soft. Seeing that I've only used a couple of tablespoons of honey along with a tablespoon of natural vanilla sugar you can hardly call this a 'jam', so I thought sweet chutney is more accurate. We enjoyed it at breakfast with oatmeal, but you could easily pair it with cheese and crackers, or have it with some creamy yoghurt or good vanilla bean ice cream.

Sweet quince chutney with poorman's orange

2 ripe quinces, chopped into chunks

1 poorman's orange (or grapefruit)

2 tablespoons manuka honey

1 tablespoon natural, raw vanilla sugar

1. Place all ingredient in a large saucepan. Bring to boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer for about 40-60 minutes or until fully cooked and very soft. Add some water during the cooking if needed.

2. Gently mash the quince if necessary and serve with porridge, cheese, yoghurt or good vanilla bean ice cream.

Love the colour of it, looks so nice. Gorgeous photos, it is so great hearing someone else get excited about the fresh farm produce. My brother has a huge vege patch on a farm in Orange and when i go out there we all go out and pick loads of veges and fruit. Its just the best, and they are amazing to eat. My daughter just loves it too, she picks the fresh veges and eats them raw.

I've been off to NY for a little more than one week and not been on the net during this time. I'm amazed over how many gorgous posts you've made during this time. Just absolutely wonderful to come home to! :)

Absolutely one of the best posts yet in my opinion because I love the idea of the poor man's orange. How pure, organic and fresh. My mouth is watering just thinking about slathering that on any and everything.

I've never heard of poorman's orange but thank you for introducing me to something new! This chutney looks just scrumptious and the color is something else! What a wonderful condiment to create out of your own kitchen. Thanks for sharing, Maria, and thanks also for stopping by my blog. :)

This sounds so delicious! It's currently gloomy and rainy here (has been and will be all week), so I think this will be the perfect pick-me-up. Thank you for sharing! Pictures are beautiful as always :)